Shellfish – The Food Wife

Asian-inspired Noodle Salad with Prawns

6th September 20256th September 2025
by thefoodwife

Serves 2

I absolutely love a noodle salad, they are wonderfully versatile and you can use up whatever salad or veg you have. This is more of a guide than a recipe per se but I will include the dressing which was so delicious. If you like it sweeter then add a little sugar too but I found the Thai sweet chilli sauce was sweet enough.

Ingredients:

Loads of raw veg sliced up (I used iceberg lettuce, carrot, yellow pepper, red cabbage and tomatoes)

100g (when dry) cooked and cooled vermicelli noodles

For the dressing:

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp lemon/lime juice

1 tbsp tamarind (or an other tbsp of lemon/lime juice)

12 king prawns, cooked

Step 1: Mix the dressing ingredients together in a large bowl.

Step 2: Add the vegetables and cooled noodles and toss thoroughly.

Step 3: Add the cooked prawns and serve immediately.

Pork and Prawn stuffed Cabbage Rolls

11th February 202412th February 2024
by thefoodwife

Makes 12-15 rolls

Here is a low carb way to enjoy delicious pork and prawn dumplings. Using cabbage leaves in place of the dough makes these a tasty and healthier addition to your repertoire.

Ingredients:

500g pork mince

165g raw king prawns roughly chopped

60g shiitake mushrooms roughly chopped

1 tbsp oyster sauce (gluten-free if required)

1 tbsp soy sauce (gluten-free if required)

1 tsp Chinese 5 spice

2 spring onions, finely sliced

2 fat cloves of garlic, crushed

12-15 large savoy cabbage leaves, washed and blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds

Dipping sauce:

1 tsp Sesame oil

2 tbsp Soy sauce (gluten-free if required)

4 tbsp Black rice vinegar

1 tbsp Sugar

Step 1: Mix the pork, prawns, mushrooms, oyster sauce, soy sauce, Chinese 5 spice, spring onion and garlic together in a large bowl. For best results use your hands to ensure everything is combined.

Step 2: Next take the blanched cabbage leaves and use a sharp knife to remove the tough stem from the base of them. Lay them flat.

Step 3: Wet your hands to help stop the mixture sticking to them and take golf ball sized amounts and mould them into a squat sausage shape and place in the centre of a leaf and then fold them for the bottom of the leaf, tucking in the sides as you go, until you have a neat parcel. Repeat with the remaining leaves.

*The folded cabbage rolls, pre-steaming. You can prepare them to this stage in advance and keep them on a plate in the fridge for a few hours until ready to steam.*

Step 4: Steam the parcels for 12-15 minutes. Meanwhile mix up the dipping sauce ingredients. When the dumplings are freshly steamed serve them with the dipping sauce.

*One of the cooked cabbage rolls during a meal.*

Garlic and Chilli Prawns

20th July 202220th July 2022
by thefoodwife

Serves 2 as a main course/4 as a starter

This may be a messy meal but itâ€™s also delicious. If youâ€™re not a fan of peeling prawns then you can of course use ready peeled raw prawns (about 250g). But they wonâ€™t have as much flavour.

Serve with crusty bread to mop up all the oil and juices or with some fries.

Ingredients:

500g raw, shell on, king prawns

3 tbsp olive oil

2 spring onions

4 fat cloves of garlic, crushed or finely diced

1 tsp chilli flakes (or more if you like it spicy)

1 lemon, cut into wedges

Step 1: Finely slice the spring onions, reserving the green ends as a garnish. Add the sliced white ends to a large frying pan or wok along with the olive oil. Heat over a medium high heat, as they start to sizzle add the garlic and chilli flakes along with the prawns. Stir frequently to avoid burning and cook until the prawns turn pink (a few minutes).

Step 2: Remove from the heat and sprinkle over the reserved slices of green spring onion and serve with wedges of fresh lemon. Eat immediately.

Pad Thai

9th April 20229th April 2022
by thefoodwife

Serves 2 as a main meal or 4 as a side

One of my favourites! The garnishes really make the flavour of this and you can control the heat by adding the chilli to your own taste. If making this gluten-free ensure you the oyster sauce you use is – Lee Kum Kee do one.

You can easily scale this recipe up, and add any extra protein you like; prawns or chicken work well. You can make the sauce up in advance of the final cooking the dish, the same goes for the frying of the tofu and the egg. Doing so makes the final cooking quick and easy.

Ingredients:

Sauce:

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce (gluten-free if required)

2 1/2 tbsp tamarind purÃ©e

4 1/2 tbsp packed/heaped light soft brown sugar

Stir fry:

2 handfuls of Stir fry vegetables of your choice (onion/pepper/baby corn/carrot ribbons work well)

3 handfuls of bean sprouts

225g firm tofu, pressed and cut into cubes

2 eggs, beaten

200g wide flat rice noodles, cooked according to the packet instructions (then run through with cold water to stop them from sticking. You could also add a few drops of sesame oil to help keen them separate too)

Garnish:

1 lime cut into wedges

Fresh coriander leaves

Crushed chilli flakes

Crushed roasted peanuts

N.b. Steps 1-3 can be done in advance and stored in the fridge. If adding extra protein, stir fry before adding the vegetables in step 4.

Step 1: Mix all the sauce ingredients into a smooth sauce. Set to one side (if making in advance store, sealed in a tub, in the fridge).

Step 2: In a wok, fry the tofu in vegetable oil over a medium high heat, turning until nicely coloured and slightly crisped. Remove from the pan. Set to one side (if making in advance store, sealed in a tub, in the fridge).

Step 3: In the same wok, using the residual oil, scramble the eggs and cook until it is in dry pieces. Remove from the pan. Set to one side (if making in advance store, sealed in a tub, in the fridge).

If you have done steps 1-3 in advance remove from the fridge 20 minutes before cooking to allow them to come up to room temperature.

Step 4: Heat a little oil in the wok over a high heat. Stir fry the vegetables, moving them about the pan. Add the cooked rice noodles and keep tossing or stirring them, then add the fried tofu, egg and sauce, keep tossing everything so that it is all is coated in the sauce and heated through.

Step 5: Once everything is piping hot, serve, with fresh coriander, wedges of lime, crushed peanuts and chilli flakes. Delicious.

â€˜Nduja and Prawn Spaghetti

22nd May 202022nd May 2020
by thefoodwife

Serves 2

â€˜Nduja is a Calabrian spreadable spicy salami. If youâ€™ve had the Spanish sobrassada before itâ€™s very similar, and could be used in its place. Alternatively you can always use chorizo.

The spicy sausage works beautifully with the sweet prawns, and the fat from the â€˜nduja helps create the scant sauce which coats each strand of the spaghetti.

This is a super quick meal, ready in the time it takes to cook the pasta. Perfect for a weeknight.

Ingredients:
150g spaghetti (gluten-free if required) cooked, according to the packet instructions (reserve a ladleful of the cooking water)
100g nduja, broken into pieces
16 king prawns, raw, shelled and deveined
1 fat clove of garlic, crushed
1 red chilli, diced

Step 1: While the pasta is cooking, place a frying pan over a medium heat and add the ‘nduja. Cook until it releases its oils and starts to break up. Add the garlic and chilli and stir to avoid them burning.

Step 2: Just as the pasta is cooked, add the prawns to the frying pan and cook on both sides.

Step 3: Add the cooked spaghetti to the frying pan along with a ladle of cooking water to loosen the sauce. Toss together until the pasta is coated. Serve.